THEor Captain, aired tonight at 9.30 pm on Rai 1, It is Matteo Garrone’s latest film. In competition at the Venice Film Festival 2023, it was included, the following year, in the Cinquina dei Oscar for the best international film. Shot between Italy, Morocco and Senegal, tells the difficult journey of two African teenagers to reach Sicily.
I captain On Rai 1, the plot of Matteo Garrone’s film
Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) they are two teenage senegalese cousins who they leave Dakar to reach Italy with the dream of breaking through in rap. The boys thus cross Mali with a false passport and, despite a policeman, he discover the deception, avoid prison and are released in exchange for money.
Once in Niger, the two boys face the desert until the borders of Libyawhere however they are arrested and conducted in two different detention centers. Seydou is tortured but still manages to get out of prisonoffering himself as a bricklayer. After carrying out some construction works, the boy comes released And he is paid for the trip for Tripoli.
In the Libyan capital, Seydou finds Moussawith which he puts himself on his way to Europe. In Tripoli the cousins know the businessman Ahmed (Hichem Yacoubi) that organizes crossings in the Mediterranean Sea. Not having enough money to pay for the journey, the two are offered a single possibility: Seydou will have to drive the boat. Instructed by Ahmed on how to govern it, the boy manages to lead All healthy and safe passengers in Sicily.
A scene from the film “I captain”. (Photo by Greta De Lazzaris)
I captain Is it taken from a true story?
Capable of narrating the journey (between reality and dream) of the two migrants slightly and dramaticly at the same time, I captain It was written by Matteo Garrone together with the screenwriters Massimo Gaudioso, Andrea Tagliaferri and Massimo Ceccherini. Narrated from the point of view of its protagonists, the film has very little documentary and is approaching more A sort of “black fairy tale”, in the best style of Garrone, in which reality is intertwined with the fairy and dreamlike.
A sort of magical neo-realismIn short, that Garrone has developed over the years and that in I captain It stages in a masterful way especially in moments of greatest emotional tension. The drama is transfigured and, when reality becomes too destructive and cruel, the viewer can also resort, with relief, to fantasy and dream. Just like the protagonist Seydou.
Politician without being ideological, I captain It is a great emotional film. The cast of actors gives authenticity to each phase of the audacious journey. The direction is discreet, and avoids any predictory attitude, to encourage the identification of the viewer with the protagonists.
Matteo Garrone was inspired by the true stories of Kouassi Pli Adama Mamadou, Arnaud Zohin, Amara Fofana, Browo Tareke and Siaka Doumbia. Guys who really made the journey of the two cousins protagonists of the film.
Seydou Sarr and Matteo Garrone with the prizes won by “I captain” in Venice 2023: the Marcello Mastroianni prize to the debutant actor and the silver lion at the best direction. (Getty Images)
The cast of Matteo Garrone’s film: the revelation Seydou Sarr
To make the film, Matteo Garrone started from real testimonies of those who lived the odyssey of the two protagonists. To choose interpreters who were authentic he did Many casting in Africa. Until He was not struck by two young boys from Dakar: Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall.
The first, 17 years old at the beginning of the filming, He had no experience as an actor while Moustapha, 18 years old, had done some theater at school. The director not only chose them but He brought them with him to Italy, hosting them at his mother’s house in Fregene.
Great football fan, Seydou still dreams of a career on playing fields But he also wants to continue making cinema. The only certainty: Living in Italyas he said in an interview a Vogue. Then adding that today “Matteo is like a father for me And his mom, between a pasta with ragù and a fried squid, is even teaching me the Italian ».
Thanks to his extraordinary interpretation, Seydou won the legendary Marcello Mastroianni prizeassigned to the best actor or the best emerging actress, at the Venice Festival 2023. Last year, He was the protagonist of a documentary on his life entitled Seydou, the dream has no direct color by Simone Aleandri and also starred in the African film In-out.
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